The shortcode manager came from a small, stubborn annoyance.
I wanted to build homepages with real templates, not with a visual builder. But I also did not want every section to be hardcoded directly into a PHP file forever. A homepage changes. Sections move. Some are enabled for a while, then removed. Titles need tweaks. A section might need a different background or a slightly different setting.
I wanted the flexibility without surrendering the whole page to a drag-and-drop interface.
A controlled assembly system
The first idea was simple: templates define the structure, shortcodes define reusable sections, and the admin decides which sections appear and in what order.
That became the shortcode manager.
At first, it was more manual. Over time, it became more self-aware. Shortcodes could register metadata. The manager could discover available sections. Titles, attributes, layout settings, backgrounds, and ordering became editable from the admin without burying the structure inside a builder.
Then the same idea moved to the plugin side. The parent theme has a shortcode manager for generic pages and homepage-like layouts. The core plugin has a shortcode manager for addon/entity pages, especially the main custom post type page of an addon.
This is one of the most Lubinik things in Lubinik. It is deliberately not a page builder. It is also deliberately not a rigid template where every section is fixed forever.
It sits in the middle: code owns the structure, the admin controls the active pieces, and each section stays small enough to understand.
